The Resurrection of an Early Second World War Army Bike

When I helped Roy and Ken drag the remains of what had once been a motorcycle out of the back of Roy’s van and into Ken’s workshop (not easy with flat tyres and semi seized wheels) I thought to myself that it would have been kinder to have left it rusting gently in whatever ditch it had seemingly been found in. As someone who thinks of himself as a more of a “motorcycle maintainer” rather than a restorer I wouldn’t have given it a second glance at an autojumble, considering it way beyond anything that I would think of as salvageable. Even Ken, a veteran of numerous motorcycle restorations through the years, looked at it rather askance and only Roy was enthusiastic about what could be achieved with “a bit of work”. At that stage I do not think that even he realised just how much effort and time, on Ken’s part, that “bit of work” would take before the phoenix would rise again from the ashes.

As dragged in, the frame had a grafted on Jampot rear subframe and a non compatible rear wheel, the engine and gearbox were corroded and seized and with none of the electrics present. Also, although there was a set of Teledaulic forks fitted and a front wheel to suit there was none of the correct tinware or tanks at with it. Even so I thought that it was surprisingly heavy to drag around despite a large amount of it seeming to be missing. Initially Roy thought that what we had was a WD G3L model but after some research and long conversations with Club member John Tinley, who is an authority on AJS and Matchless manufactured WD motorcycles, it was actually an example of the much rarer early girder forked G3WO model, in this case a 1940 example and obviously someone had updated it with Teledraulic forks at some time after its “service” life had ended. So now knowing what it was we were dealing with Roy went about finding as much information on the model as he could while I had the task of taking as many photographs as I could of John Tinley’s similar example at the 2013 Jampot Rally for reference by Ken when trying to put everything together.

The G3WO as it first appeared. The photograph rather flatters the condition of the bike making it look a lot better than it actually was.

The first task for Ken in the meantime was to repair those of the frame tubes in the correct type of rigid rear subframe which Roy had obtained that were too damaged to be used in their current state. This in itself took a lot longer and involved a lot more work than I think Roy realised it would. I usually visit Ken’s workshop every fortnight and lend a hand wherever tasks determine that two people are better than one and on each visit I would see that latest “find” which Roy had managed to locate for the project. I was always staggered to see the actual condition of this seemingly scrap tinware when it arrived at Ken’s workshop and to learn the eye watering cost of these bits, which had presumably been discarded as unserviceable during other people’s past restorations. I suppose it just goes to show the sort of challenges in restoring any thing that is not too common. It not only takes a lot of searching to find the bits but the high cost when you do find them, only to then have to start a major restoration job on each bit of tinware you find before you are able to use anything. If I wasn’t already convinced before then after seeing the condition of these almost “unobtainable” bits and the work that Ken had to put in on them to get them useable I certainly know now that I could never have the patience or skill to be a restorer.

It’s not just the parts themselves though, everything has to be made to fit and that involves making dozens of spacers and bushes of various sizes, because none of these ever survive with the parts themselves. For instance, the correct girder front forks, once obtained, then need all the links, spacers, bushes, friction dampers etc to be obtained and refurbished, or made from scratch before anything can be fitted – and so it continues throughout the bike for every part involved. The front hub, brake assembly and speedo drive in the form it was needed was absolutely unobtainable and parts had to be borrowed and copied so that a similar version could be adapted. Hours and hours of work just to get a part which, for a current model, could be just purchased “on order” for delivery in a few days. Something which we found while working on the bike was that precision standards as regards fittings were not exactly precise in those wartime days and frame holes were made deliberately larger so that engine/gearbox mounting bolts would actually fit by allowing for slight misalignments. That was perhaps not so surprising considering a lot of the skilled workforce would have been drafted into the armed forces during those years. What did surprise me a bit though was that for such a basically simple motorcycle just how awkward to fit were some of the parts and how little clearance there was to get bits in the actual framework itself. I had no previous experience of these bikes myself but I suppose that anyone who has worked on a rigid framed AJS/Matchless single of that period will understand the fiddle there is in fitting the oil tank and battery carrier in the frame while trying to get around the pre-monobloc carburettor float bowl and not damage the newly applied paintwork. Well.....it didn’t look that awkward before we started trying to get it all in and fixed, but you need several hands to hold all the bits but there is no room for your fingers.

The rebuild of the G3WO starts to take shape with its correct girder forks and rigid rear end.

Slowly, on each of my visits I could see the bike taking shape. Roy continued finding the missing bits that were still needed, Ken continued doing all the hard work and I just helped out where I could. The magneto which Roy obtained, once cleaned and rebuilt, produced a decent spark and we made one good dynamo out of two but were unable to properly test the voltage control unit at this stage, only clean all the contacts. With the bottom and top ends of the engine completed the gearbox, which was actually not too bad inside, was re-built and tested for operation before the dynamo and magneto were fitted and the magneto timed. Ken had the wheels rebuilt by Hagon’s and ordered some control cables from JJ Cables, while Roy obtained a wiring harness, which I went around to Ken’s to help fit, being that I am supposed to know about that sort of thing. When I saw the new harness I was shocked as it looked so thin. When I mentioned this to Roy he told me that it was thin wire technology which is apparently now used everywhere. I must say, that it flies in the face of all that I learnt during my electrical apprenticeship about electrical wiring carrying similar power but at differing voltages, but that was fifty years ago and I haven’t been involved with electronics for twenty years now so things must have moved on since then. Still, with all the wires joined up in the right places we were able to test the lights for operation and connect the charging circuit.

All finished and ready for the off! With some trepidation the first start up was attempted. However, it started on about the fourth kick, another old war horse resurrected and ready for duty.

Finally it all came together and it was ready for its first start up. I thought that it should be Roy that had the honour of the first attempt as it was, after all, his bike so I wasn’t present when the great moment arrived. Knowing the quality of Ken’s work I did not have any doubts that it would run OK although after having the bike on the bench for so long Ken himself was somewhat concerned that something would go wrong. However, he needn’t have worried and the bike fired up on about the fourth kick and sounded fine. I saw the bike about a week later and once more it started on the third or fourth kick and I was quite impressed with just how well it sounded and how slow it ticked over with correct use of the advance and retard control. Around the time of the first start up Ken had a visit from an old friend (“Snowy”) who had ridden one of these bikes on active service during World War 2. He was delighted to be reacquainted with a G3WO again after all the passing years and looking in such good condition. His response sort of gave the bike back the personal connection to the past which it had previously lost. The rebuild have been long, arduous and expensive but whereas the bike had a very uncertain future when it was obtained It will in the future now hopefully give someone many happy miles and years of pleasure, a fitting resurrection of an early World War Two warhorse.

“Snowy” gets reacquainted with a model that he last rode when on active service in the 1940s.

At the start of this piece I stated that I see myself more as a “motorcycle maintainer” rather than any sort of “restorer”. I could never have the patience or skill to attempt the sort of work which had to be carried out on this bike. It had taken over a year to complete with Ken carrying out the sort of work needed to turn what had been a “clapped out” wreck into something which could be considered as near to new as it is possible to get with a bike which started life well over seventy years ago and using as many resurrected “original age” parts as it was possible to get. Viewing the project as mainly an observer I have seen both the enormous cost in getting parts for the bike, which then need even more expense in parts to rebuild them and the huge amount of time which Ken had to put in to carry out the work. If this had been a professional restoration (ie by someone who had to earn their living from the work) then the finished bike could never be sold at anything like what the true cost had been and such a project, when starting from an incomplete total wreck, can only ever be entertained as a “labour or love” and I can now see why so many similar projects which were no doubt started up from old wrecks with enthusiasm by their hopeful owners end up being sold on as “basket cases”

Colin Atkinson

You can see an article on the rebuild of another army bike on this link

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